#because I was quoting the linked source and I ended up linking a different source instead | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

carriesthewind · 3 months ago

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Hi, @incomt65 ! I'm a lawyer, which means it's my job to be able to back up everything I'm saying with provable facts!

So let's take a look at a few of the claims that you made in your response in an attempt to "prevent the spread of misinformation."

First, you begin your response by obfuscating the difference between "public library" and "library." For those unaware, there are many different kinds of libraries, and the term can be used in all sorts of contexts. Here is a bunch of definitions assembled by the American Library Association, with more specific definitions of a few different kinds of libraries, including public libraries. As you have "a master's degree in library & information science," I believe you must know the difference, and it is hard to believe that your obfuscation is not deliberate.

(putting the rest of below a cut because this post is already too long)

Second, you claim that the IA is "recognized as a library." Now, this is a claim that I see all the time. Since you didn't bother to provide a source, I can't call you a liar, since you may have just meant, "news articles uncritically report that it is is recognized as a library," which I guess is a kind of recognition by those news writers.

But we're in the business of preventing the spread of misinformation, so let's be a bit more specific and look for a source, shall we?

Let's turn first to your argument that it's "engaged in the work of libraries." You cite the "work of libraries" as: "preserving and providing access* to information."

I'm going to be honest, this is one of the broadest definitions of a library I have ever read. And I don't think even IA's proponents agree with you: here is an article some of them wrote last year arguing that the IA's "open library" is a library. However, even in that article, despite picking a definition themselves, they fail to provide evidence that it even meets the complete definition of a library that they themselves proffer. Most notably, one of the listed characteristics of a library in that article is that it "offer[s] targeted services and programs." They do not offer any evidence that comes even close to meeting that prong of the definition.

*I will also note that, like every other angry reaction I've received, nowhere in your response to you address the issue of access that I raised in my post. This isn't relevant to my point in this response, but it's really really telling to me that a librarian who believes in "the value of information access for everyone" doesn't think the question of what access actually means is worth addressing.

But let's turn back to your claim, that the IA is "recognized as a library." Where does this come from?

Well, if we go all the way back in the IA blog's archives, we find this post: "Internet Archive officially a library". This post links to a local paper which states, "In May, California officially recognized the Internet Archive, established in 1996, as a library." The article claims this designation means "the online archive eligible to apply for several federal grant programs that are administered by the state of California." But it notes that Brewster Kahle says it means that the "digital library is on equal footing with a print material archive." But what does it actually mean?

Well, if we do some more digging, it looks like the State Librarian (of Schools and Libraries Division of USAC) recognized it as a library for the purposes of allowing it to apply for federal grant programs administered by the state under an exception for "other special library"**...an exception which it seems may no longer exist. It was still listed on the California State's Library Website as a grantee in 2017 (along with some other cool archiving projects that while valuable, are not libraries), but is not currently listed.

**Caveat that this is an unverified comment from an old blog, but the information provided matches the controlling guidelines from 2007.

So yeah. That is, as far as I can tell, the IA's whole basis for the argument that they have any formal recognition as a library. That in 2007, a single state allowed it to apply for a grant.

Of course, @incomt65, you didn't actually include any evidence for your claim, so I may be missing something. If you would like to include your basis for your assertion, I'm happy to review. I wouldn't want to spread misinformation.

Third: you claim that for all the materials in the IA's "Emergency Library, "They own these books legally, because they either purchased them or received them through donations, the same methods any library employs to build a collection."

This is factually untrue, according to the IA themselves. (Whoops. Maybe you should have actually checked this before posting misinformation online.) While some of the books were purchased or received through donations, others were scanned from the partner libraries' collections. From Hachette, a more detailed description of how this worked: "In 2018, IA launched the “Open Libraries Project,” allowing libraries to “contribute” their noncirculating print books to the number of concurrent checkouts available on IA’s website. Participating libraries send a catalog of their noncirculating books to IA, which then runs an “overlap analysis.” App’x 6095. If the library’s catalog includes a book for which IA already has a digital copy, IA increases the number of available concurrent checkouts by one. Participating libraries may, in turn, integrate links to IA’s digital books in their own catalogs." Hachette Book Group, Inc. v. Internet Archive, No. 23-1260, at 11 (2nd Cir. Sept. 4, 2024) (footnote omitted) ***

***I will be citing from Hachette repeatedly here, because the facts in the decision are all taken from undisputed statements of facts by the parties, i.e., these are all facts that both the publishers and IA agreed were true before a court of law.

Furthermore, you claim that the IA did not "illegally obtain any of the resources in the National Emergency Library." Again, hi, lawyer here. Whether or not something is "illegal" is a factual, not a moral, question. You might think is should be ok to scan a book you own and then lend that scan out to other people. You may think that the scan should be considered the same as the physical book, so if you bought the book legally, you also obtained the scan legally. But regardless of your opinions of what should be, the court very clearly found that the IA's scanning and then lending of those books was, in fact, illegal.

That's one of the things about courts: they get to decide what is and isn't illegal. You may not like what they describe, but factually describing what the law is is not a misstatement. Declaring that something wasn't actually illegal because you think it was morally fine, however, is.

Fourth, you state, "Prior to COVID-19, IA was engaged in loaning these digital books using the same approach that almost every library uses: by allowing users to borrow them with artificial restrictions imposed."

This is...kind of correct, if only because you have phrased it very carefully. See, the reason that libraries impose artificial restrictions is because those restrictions are imposed by the licenses under which they own the digital books. See Hachette, No. 23-1260, at 8-9. The IA did not have a license to digitize or lend digital copies of the books that they were lending. See id. at 14. So not a misstatement, but kind of misleading, don't you think?

This is made more misleading by your statement, "But the process the IA had in place for loaning digital books prior to the pandemic was exactly the process any "normal" library follows." Again, this isn't really true. The IA was engaged in a form of "Controlled Digital Lending," which there are entire position statements about and a white paper on because it is different from the normal digital book lending process. And I say "a form of CDL" because different libraries are approaching it in different ways. For example, Virginia's Academic Library Consortium only allows CDL if the library itself owns the physical book. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, however, only used CDL if the material was not already available as an e-book.

Fifth, you state, "(I will also note that many of the books in this collection, which spans books from the 1920s to early 2000s, are no longer protected by copyright and/or are no longer in print, and therefore it is not possible to pay a publisher to obtain them. Loans of these books in no way represent "lost sales" for publishers.)" This is correct! It is not a misstatement! However, as the lawsuit wasn't about that portion of the IA's collection (a point which you never clarified) it is utterly irrelevant to your post and appears intended only to represent the nature of the case. See Hachette, No. 23-1260, at 14-15 ("All 127 Works are available as authorized eBooks that may be purchased by consumers or licensed to libraries.")

Sixth, you state, "The only difference in the case of the National Emergency Library is that IA temporarily suspended one of the artificial restrictions--instead of one user at a time having access to the digital resource while others were placed on a waitlist, they allowed for multiple users to access the same resource." Again, this is, technically, true. It is not a misstatement. But my god, do you not understand the difference? The one-to-one owned-to-loaned ratio is the entire basis of CDL! It's the thing that supposed to make it not a violation of copyright! It's the thing that supposed to make it different than digital piracy! Yes, allowing multiple loans of the same item was the "only difference," but that difference was critical!

Seventh, you say, "They were not freely distributing these books for anyone to keep forever; they were still "checked out" and had to be returned, and could not be redistributed to other people." Again, this is true, and not a misstatement. But because you have framed your entire post as correcting things that my original post "misunderstands and misrepresents...about the case," you are very clearly implying that I claimed that the IA was "freely distributing these books for anyone to keep forever." Or that this claim was in any way a part of my argument. And I didn't say that, in this post or any others. You are claiming to fight misinformation while actively misrepresenting my statements and my arguments.

Eighth, you state, "So, no, IA didn't steal anything. There was no piracy involved here." Again, this is just a lie. I believe that you want it to be true, but these are ultimately questions of law, that were decided by a court. They did steal, and they were engaged in pirating material.

Ninth, you state, "They employed the same exact methods that are standard in libraries to provide access to digital content." Again, this isn't true. See above.

Tenth, you state, "Legal challenges that threaten their rights in this area are threats to all libraries, because we all rely on the same legal justifications and interpretations of what is permissable for us to do."

So this is actually true. But it really, really pisses me off. Because when I said the IA was selfish, it is for exactly this reason. Libraries were engaging in versions of CDL carefully trying to push the boundaries of copyright to increase access. The IA decided to blow it all up in pursuit of their own interests and agenda, not the interests of libraries or the public. Their entire approach to their "open library" was, legally speaking, stupid and reckless, and their "national emergency library" was obviously illegal to anyone with any passing knowledge of the law. The IA knew that "Legal challenges that threaten their rights in this area are threats to all libraries," and they had full reason to know that their "emergency library" would create the perfect opportunity for publishers to sue them in a case that they would have no chance of winning, and they decided to damn the risk to libraries, damn the risk to the public, and do it anyway. The IA’s actions were a reckless attempt to push their policy agenda in a way that obviously violated copyright law, to an extent that a lawsuit was all but inevitable, and ensured a major loss for proponents of “Controlled Digital Lending” in the courts.

And for what.

Because that's the thing that really gets me about your response. I can deal with the lies. I can deal with the insults.

But you decide to end your piece by saying that the IA's post wasn't critical of library closures, and you completely decline to address any of my points about what patrons really needed, and what access really means.

Because fuck you. You have "a master's degree in library & information science" and have "been working in the field for over 10 years." You should know how to read a text. An article does not need to say, "this is an outrage"**** to express that they think something is outrageous. It's plenty good enough to spend two paragraphs using the most incendiary language possible to talk about a temporary situation that librarians on the ground were doing everything they could to mitigate.

****And by the by, if you look at my original post, you will note that I did correctly quote the article's statement that the library closures were a "tremendous and historic outage." I then read the rest of what the article said and understood it was saying the closures were outrageous, and attempted to use some ~clever wordplay~ to covey my understanding of that meaning. You many note I did not put quotes around the term "historic outrage." To the extent that I may have confused anyone however, I do apologize.

And more than that - I only worked in a library for a few years, and I don't know how many times I heard people getting mad at the librarians for "wasting my tax dollars." If you've been "working in the field," you know exactly the attitude and criticism that was deliberately being invoked by the language of that article.

And about those librarians on the ground - they were in fact doing a lot to address the needs of their communities. Including, by the way, getting them access to those books that were "locked away indefinitely behind closed doors." For example, here is a response to the practice of "curbside pickup" of library books that was published four days before the article I linked.

And you say you care about "the value of information access for everyone." I do to. And like I said in my original post, "access" doesn't just means that a file is digitized online somewhere so someone can theoretically check it out. People need to have access to computers or phones, access to the internet, a safe space to sit and read. They need to be able to find the information they are looking for. If you've ever actually worked in a library, you know that a large part of the library's services are helping people find what they are looking for. Because just because a book exists in a collection, doesn't mean a patron can find it.

And people who could use the IA's "emergency library"? They already had that. The only "unprecedented need" their actions addressed were making already-existing digital books more easily available to people who already had the means to access massive amounts of freely available information and entertainment. There were real and lasting harms of libraries having to temporarily close. None of those harms stemmed from someone having to wait a few extra months to check out The House on Mango Street.

If you care about libraries, librarians, and books, and if you believe in the value of information access for everyone, you should be furious at the IA's actions, not defending them.

And in the future, please spread accurate information and fact check before you decide to reply to a post.

I reread the IA's contemporaneous post justifying their "National Emergency Library", and one of the things that struck me is just how selfish it was.

(It was also full of falsehoods, ranging from exaggeration to outright lies, but that's another matter.)

While 2020 feels like it was several decades in the past, it was actually only a few years ago. And I remember March of 2020! I was there! And oh my god, is this post right in line with every other selfish, demanding asshole determined to make a global pandemic all about themselves!

First of all, there is the language of the post - it is a "tremendous and historic outage" that books are unavailable to patrons because libraries are closed for the pandemic. "Right now, today, there are 650 million books that tax-paying citizens have paid to access that are sitting on shelves in closed libraries, inaccessible to them."

Missing from this outrage is a recognition that, like. Librarians are people. They get sick, and die.

They did get sick, and died.

Libraries were closed not only to protect patrons and the public, but librarians too. Libraries were closed to protect people, human beings. Because generally speaking, even the most enthusiastic supporters of access to books and knowledge, prioritize lives over books.

The AI's post, however, reeks of an entitlement to things that *my* tax dollars paid for. Libraries and library collections aren't a public good. They're something *I* should be able to access anytime I want, damn the context or the consequences.

(Was it also a historic outrage when I had to wait several months to check out Nona the Ninth, because so many other people were checking it out?)

Second, as I said, I remember early 2020. And in spring and summer of 2020, there was more free content on the internet than before or since. So many people and so many institutions were bending over backwards to provide people with books and tv shows and music and podcasts and virtual tours and collections and just about anything that someone could figure out how to digitize. So many people were giving away books for free, or writing/recording new content to give away for free. I can't even remember how many times I heard or read someone telling their readers or listeners just to pay what they could, if they could. So many people and institutions were giving away so much, do so much, to provide access to knowledge and books and entertainment and information.

And in that moment, the IA decided to steal from people. When so many people, so many authors, were acting so selflessly, they decided that it wasn't good enough. And instead of giving away themselves, they decided to steal from authors and pat themselves on the back for "meet[ing] this unprecedented need," when they didn't even actually do anything themselves. Or maybe more accurately, the only thing they did was something irrelevant to the actual needs of the community, something they wanted to do anyway, something to try to use a pandemic as an excuse to advance their agenda.

Because third, there is zero concern for the population of patrons actually most impacted by the closure. The IA cares, to a fault, only about information being digitized.* But many people who use physical libraries, many of the people most impacted by their closure, are people who do not have access to the AI's so-called "open library." And people who could access digital books generally continued to have access to their library's e-book services, and to tons of other free content. The patrons who were actually in the most need are ignored as irrelevant.

*And I want to be clear - they care that information is digitized, not about digital access. "Access" means more than information being digitized and theoretically being able to be read.

It's so clear that IA didn't really care about the patrons of physical libraries. Instead, they saw a real problem, and instead of working toward any solutions, decided to use it as a prop to push their own agenda. (Again, while people were dying.)

It's just all so deeply selfish.

#internet archive #hatchette v internet archive #edited to remove the quotation marks around 'scanned from [the partner libraries'] collections'#because I was quoting the linked source and I ended up linking a different source instead

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love-belle · 1 year ago

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i should hate u !!!

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ in which their post break-up era is them using shady captions to communicate and the media and fans being confused.

for when you loved them too much. ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚

social media au // max verstappen x fem!reader

sequel - today and tomorrow and every day after that ⋆·˚ ༘ *

warnings - language

author's note - hello!!! i really hope u like this <3 i was initially gonna do daniel ricciardo one first but i already had 1/2 of this done so i just decided to post this :) thank u sm for reading <3 i love u

≡;- ꒰ °instagram ꒱

liked by paddock.club, f1gossippage, y/n4everrr and 6,829 others

f1news y/n y/l/n and max verstappen called it quits almost a month ago and it seems like they didn't end on good terms at all. the singer, at her london show last night, threw shade at her ex-boyfriend, saying and we quote, "the next song wouldn't have been possible without this one dude who inspired it obviously. so — here's 'i should hate you'. spoiler alert, i do. thank you!" the reason for the split is still unknown but sources who claim to be close to the pair said that 'it was bound to happen — with their different goals and plans for the future," seemingly referring to the talks that y/l/n wanted to get married and verstappen didn't. both of them have yet to comment on the situation. for more details, click on the link in our bio.

278 comments

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≡;- ꒰ °instagram ꒱

liked by lewishamilton, carlossainz55, pierregasly and 799,155 others

maxverstappen1 i know i say that i am better now, spoiler alert, i am

8,926 comments

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-> maxverstappen1 WE'RE NOT EVEN IN THE SAME HOTEL

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username I CAN'T TAKE THIS SERIOUS IM SORRY THE POST IS JUST TOO FUNNY

≡;- ꒰ °instagram ꒱

liked by selenagomez, carmenmmundt, dualipa and 2,246,826 others

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12,628 comments

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*liked by yourusername*

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≡;- ꒰ °instagram ꒱

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maxverstappen1 it's all better now

comments are disabled for this post

≡;- ꒰ °instagram ꒱

liked by carmenmmundt, charles_leclerc, landonorris and 2,829,626 others

yourusername and i swear to god i'd kill you if i loved you a less hard

13,728 comments

username SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

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-> maxverstappen1 don't. i did not agree to that.

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auroratumbles · 2 months ago

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first of all, do NOT in any way harass nor send hate to anyone mentioned in this post. this is simply to raise awareness about it all!!

user @/ceneid (formerly) was a popular person in the genshin writing community who lied about their age, identity, faked an ed, and was just mainly a shitty person in general.

all the information on this post comes from an anonymous source

the blogs that were owned by elise are:

ceneid

hikoiaa

umiloa

ha-yami

scarasgfreal

symphxony

fionvancia

fixnaie

a quote from my source:

"for context, elise ran a total of 4-5 accounts, with her very first blog being ceneid that was also mutuals with you - they’re the same person. elise had multiple accounts where she claimed she was different ages and it was fairly obvious it was her due to the fact that she didn’t bother to change her typing style or themes, one of the blogs claimed she was 18, a few of my friends and i ended up noticing she had a terrible tendency to say things like “oh i haven’t eaten in 20 hours! should i eat? oh nvm” and such which led to everyone being concerned, these were EXTREMELY frequent, and she’d speak about self harm - randomly putting it in a casual conversation without warning.

she also asked for my location at some point, and overall i eventually grew tired of it and blocked her. later on, someone i know made a callout post on her and it ended in shambles, elise continued to try to get them to take the post down but to no avail until elise deactivated ceneid and started the hikoiaa blog. the person who made the post found out it was her and the cycle continued, until elise ended up admitting everyone and apologized to everyone per the person’s request.

after elise did that, the person deactivated their blog thinking elise had changed for the better - and i even interacted with her too because i thought the same thing. unfortunately, we were all wrong and found out elise owned the @/symphxony blog where she says she’s 17. multiple things have it away that it was her such as coincidentally posting the same things, following the exact same people, and elise also bypassed someone’s boundaries by interacting with them through the blog as a way to become friends with them despite the person telling her to not interact with her directly.

elise made excuses when i confronted her and told her to stop, and she played it off as coincidences like she did before when the owner of the call out post tried to talk things out with her. i have people who can vouch for everything im saying, as well as some screenshots that would unfortunately not fit into this ask because there’s too many of them, she also has this strange obsession with following and interacting with people that i follow and interact with in any shape or form, this has happened almost 7 times now as well. she’s constantly made blogs to follow me on despite me telling her to NEVER contact me again. this stopped a few days ago when she blocked me."

screenshots provided were

another quote:

"elise’s stories never made sense, they were always exaggerated and/or made her seem smarter than she actually was - this was a small bit of the proof that she was lying about her age at the end when she claimed to be 16. she linked a few tiktoks on her blog, revealing her account in the process that studied 7th grade science"

she was called out by someone else on tumblr initially, but that post was lost to the depths. she lied about having a joint blog with someone when it was really just her. to save her own skin, she dmed them.

when that blog blocked her, she made a 'burner account' to talk to them even more.

another blog named 'scarasgfreal' was made. they were 𝜗𝜚 anon and 🦢 anon. the blog was made a few days after the incident mentioned above.

the blog confronted elise.

part 2 of this post

#i know i said id stay out of drama #but this isnt gonna be talked about so ill do it myself #genshin x reader #ceneid #genshin writing community #genshin impact

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comikadraws · 1 month ago

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The "No Regrets" Line

At the request of @the-real-sasuke-uchiha and because this seems to be a common point of critique of Itachi Uchiha.

So yeah. This is the explanation all of you have been waiting for. I've got Japanese raws, researched the original expression used, and now I'm here to let you know how haters never seem to understand this scene.

Length: • 1.8K Content: • The "Wrong" Translation • The Correct Translation • A Quote Taken Out of Context

DISCLAIMER: Blue links are sources. The art in the header is mine but drawn referencing Kishimoto's original art.

The "Wrong" Translation

We all know it. We all have heard it. It regularly comes up in anti-Itachi discourse to show fans how much of a remorseless monster Itachi truly is. It's the infamous "I have no regrets" line at the end of the Kabuto fight.

And it shows up not just in the manga but in the official English Sub and Dub as well. So it should be perfectly fine, shouldn't it?

Well. Before anybody's attention span gives out, this is indeed a translation error. Sort of, at least. The English translation is "correct" but it sacrifices nuance for the sake of a simpler, crispier line. Unfortunately, this nuance just so happens to be a vital puzzle piece to understanding both Itachi and Sasuke in this scene. The lack thereof became the origin of many misconceptions about Itachi's words and, therefore, his true character.

So, instead of its true meaning, many people who read "no more regrets" ended up interpreting the line somewhat like this:

"I never regretted anything I ever did. Just deal with it, Sasuke."

And that interpretation has since turned into a stubborn misbelief within the anti-Itachi part of the fandom, so much so that it has developed a life of its own. People no longer analyze the entire scene but instead, they rip two panels out of context. They no longer quote Itachi's "I have no more regrets" but instead simplify it further to "I have no regrets" as if he never had any regrets, ever.

Don't believe me? Here's a compilation!

DISCLAIMER: I intentionally did not include sources or usernames in the compilation to avoid unnecessary witch-hunting of people who just didn't know any better or fell victim to Itachi hate propaganda. If you recognize a comment of yours and would instead like to be credited as its author, please let me know.

The Correct Translation

But now, let's take a look at what Itachi was actually meant to say in that scene. I found a Japanese raw and had a friend (who is studying Japanese) translate it for me.

Kana: もうこの世界に未練はない Rōmaji: Mō kono sekai ni miren wanai. English: I have no more attachments to this world.

If you don't believe me, you can literally enter that full sentence into Google Translate and it will provide you with the exact same translation.

And by now you probably wonder "How the fck did this happen" because the mistranslation appears to change the message of Itachi's words drastically. One speaks of resignation; The other is complacency. What rid the translator here?

Well. The secret lies in the Japanese word 未練 "Miren". It is one of many words in Japanese that express feelings of regret, each with different nuances. 後悔 "Koukai", for example, could have been a perfectly viable option had Itachi meant plain regrets or remorse for his actions. But "Miren" expresses a more complex emotion.

To better understand the meaning of "Miren", I checked three different Japanese-to-English dictionary sites [1] [2] [3]. It translates to a multitude of different words, including "lingering affection", "attachment", "reluctance", "ruefulness", and "regret". When in use, it means a reluctance to abandon or depart from something. I was told that "miren" often appears in the context of breakups, expressing an attachment to a past romance. The regret part refers, in this case, to a life that could have been or once was that you refuse to let go of. Having "Miren" means that you want to stay and that you would regret leaving. Not having any "Miren" means you are ready to move on.

Itachi uses this expression in reference to 世界 "Sekai" (World) to mean that he no longer feels a lingering attachment to the (mortal) world or life itself. He considers his own job done - Not because he thinks himself to have finished the job but instead because he has no belief in his own ability to change things for the better. With nothing left to salvage, he is ready to move on.

It is not that Itachi thinks he is a good person. He is simply just giving up. This becomes more apparent when viewing the line in context.

A Quote Taken Out of Context

What should probably be mentioned as well is that while the "no regrets" translation definitely does Itachi a disservice, haters usually also rip the line out of its original context unnecessarily. Not that I entirely blame them, as the trajectory of both Sasuke's and Itachi's thoughts is not exactly straightforward. Add to that that the butchered translation can easily be twisted to imply a different meaning entirely - especially when followed by the younger Uchiha's reaction - and you might end up interpreting Sasuke's words somewhat like this:

"You have no more regrets? You have been and are aiding the village that ruined you - That ruined me! And it is your fault! How dare you say you don't regret that?! How dare you side with them? How dare you make those your last words?!"

The outrage becomes very pronounced, is what I am saying.

At first glance, it seems as though Sasuke searches for any signs of his brother's guilt and regret, fishing for an apology, perhaps. But anybody who has paid any attention at all already knows that Itachi has expressed his guilt and regrets multiple times over already.

Aside from being shocked and disheartened to learn that Sasuke has joined the Akatsuki, he consistently frames this turn in Sasuke's path as a result of Itachi's own actions. While, yes, he recognizes "Madara's" involvement in all this, he rather says "It's my fault you became what you are now" and "I turned you into a criminal" than distracting from his own responsibility. And then when Sasuke describes Itachi as "perfect", the one thing that Itachi points out, in order to contradict this notion, is his attempts to manipulate Sasuke, characterizing them as mistakes or a character flaw of his. Itachi even denies himself the right to berate Sasuke for his decisions because he knows the weight of his mistakes.

So no, Sasuke knows that Itachi experienced profound guilt over his actions and feels deep regret - Both for their manipulative nature as well as for the effect they had on Sasuke. Sasuke has no reason to demand an admission of guilt he has already received.

But then, what does Sasuke want from Itachi? For that, let's take a look at the true context of this scene.

It begins with Sasuke's realization that, with the release of the Edo Tensei, Itachi is going to disappear yet again. Their words are meant to be interpreted somewhat like this:

"The dead revived with Edo Tensei will disappear." "But that means you will leave as well." "I know, but I accept that outcome. Even if it will be the end of me as well, I will have protected Konoha - my homeland. But beyond this, there is nothing else left for me to help with. I have no other purpose in the world of the living."

And it is not before this that Sasuke has his outburst. Much like Itachi's line about lingering attachments, the intent of Sasuke's words changes now that the mistranslation is out of the way. And much like last time, context reinforces this interpretation of Sasuke's response.

"Why would you sacrifice yourself for Konoha again? What they did was unforgivable! You should want to stay rather than help them at the cost of your life."

Sasuke clearly frames Itachi as the victim in the first part of his outburst. He is angry at Konoha not because of what they did to him but because of what they did to Itachi. He then builds upon that.

"And even if you do forgive, I still won't. I will remain their enemy. You helping Konoha will be futile. I need fixing. You've said it yourself. Both your guilt and the threat I pose should be a lingering attachment to you! So beyond Konoha not deserving your attention, I actually do require it! You are not done in this world yet."

In the second part, Sasuke picks up Itachi's own words and turns them against him. He makes himself out to be both a threat and a mistake to appeal to Itachi's wish to protect Konoha as well as his guilt over failing Sasuke.

In his mind, he must either convince Itachi that Konoha is not worth the lingering attachments or remind Itachi that Sasuke should be considered a lingering attachment (or rather, unfinished business) as well. The idea is to make one option more appealing than the other. Upon success, Itachi will stay.

The reason why is elaborated on in the next chapter. He still needs to learn the truth from Itachi but also he is longing for his older brother that he still feels affection toward.

I am not saying that Sasuke's hatred for Konoha doesn't play a role or that he is not indignant over Itachi's dedication to saving the village. It is simply that Sasuke is not just merely having an outburst, as his words are more deliberate than that, even while wrapped in anger and incomprehension. Sasuke isn't actually being malicious but desperate instead. It uncovers a layer of vulnerability in his character.

Back to Chapter #588, Itachi knows that Sasuke is not looking for an admission of guilt from him. So instead of an apology, Itachi responds, saying he is not the one to change the younger Uchiha. Instead, he believes it is Naruto who can and will stop Sasuke.

Itachi's reasoning here is that he no longer believes himself fit to steer Sasuke onto the right path. The older brother has made too many mistakes to believe himself worthy or competent enough to take on such a role in Sasuke's life. This decision was made more than 30 chapters prior (or more than 200 chapters ago, actually), when Itachi decided to leave Sasuke to Naruto.

(Obviously what is actually going on is that Kishimoto must shoehorn Naruto into the equation, but I am trying to explain Itachi's in-universe reasoning)

It is certainly a heartbreaking interpretation in which Sasuke seeks justice and wants his brother to understand his crimes, admit to them, and take it all back. One in which, instead of a brother, all he is given is a mindless puppet of Konoha.

However, the true meaning of the scene is that Itachi already has accepted his crimes. He already has sought justice for them. But this acceptance, this guilt, and those regrets are exactly the reason why Itachi is ready to move on. There is nothing keeping him in life because, in his opinion, he isn't worth it. Sasuke, instead, wants for his brother to stay. It is a longing that Itachi cannot fulfill - Not when this selfishness will get people killed or possibly spell the end for Konoha.

Isn't this a tragic way to look at it, too?

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she-posts-nerdy-stuff · 1 year ago

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It’s gone midnight and I’m thinking about Six of Crows so y’all know what that means: it’s time for a long rambling thought process that will hopefully have some interesting insights into the books in it.

I want to talk about the animal, mostly bird, symbolism of these books because although it’s obviously something we’re very aware of I also think it’s something that runs a lot deeper than we necessarily always realise/talk about. Even when people aren’t being directly involved in bird metaphors (crows, pigeons, peacocks) they are often described as “squawking”, “flapping”, or with other phrases that further this semantic field.

Now the crows is obviously the main source of the symbolism, and it’s openly talked about in the book with the speech on how the recognise human faces and how they support each other. I’ve also seen a few people online talking about the Crows in conjunction with a poem/nursery rhyme about crows (it’s one of those that has many different versions spun of it, some know it was counting magpies rather than crows) wherein 6 crows symbolises gold, of course greatly linked to the plot of the novels as well as their anti-extreme capitalism message. It’s also key to mention that crows are massively underestimated birds in the general public view; they’re far ‘smarter’ animals than we would typically expect. Crows have a very high brain to body mass ratio, I believe the highest of any birds but don’t quote me on that, and although we understand very little about the brain the size ratio is currently considered a very good indicator for the general intelligence level of the animal. Crows can make tools, hide their food, mate for life, and - VERY interestingly for this book analysis - have even been suspected to hold funerals. Now I want to be clear I’m working on a mix of random knowledge and the first helpful looking website that came up when I googled ‘fun facts about crows’ so I am by no means an expert here, but to my understanding the practice that was initially considered to be a ‘crow funeral’ is actually a process wherein crows will gather around a dead crow to look for potential danger. So I feel like the links I’m establishing here are relatively obvious, the point is that, like the birds themselves, the Crows are undervalued, underestimated, and unexpectedly successful. But the symbol of the crow in these books arguably goes even further.

The crow-headed handle of Kaz’s cane represents everything about the crow I’ve already mentioned on top of his own symbolic layering to the cane as a sign that no part of him has not been broken, and no part him is not better for having been broken. So in Chapter 27 of Crooked Kingdom, when Kaz returns to the Slat and fights the Dregs before leading a coup against Per Haskell, the cane with the fake crow’s head that Haskell has contrived to mock him effectively represents the failing of everything the Dregs represent. They’re last, the remnants, the people with nowhere else to go: they are the people who have been broken and have made something new for themselves. Except Haskell. So the sheer ridiculousness of him mocking Kaz’s cane, something he clearly thought would win him favour and success, in the end becomes one of the biggest aspects of his downfall. Inej describes the moment when the Dregs begin to support Kaz, the way the look at Per Haskell with discomfort - “the feathers in his hat, the canes in his hands” (and then she goes on to highlight how they’ve seen Kaz use his cane in fights, “wielded with such precision”, whereas Haskell is washed-up, pathetic, never could have taken the fight Kaz did and walked out the other side). Of course they realise, then, how completely and utterly wrong all of this was. Because when they’re confronted with both of those canes they realise something. They know what Kaz’s cane represents; it’s power and strength in spite of a world that has that has scorned him, it’s taking something that was broken and not fixing it but emphasising it and making it into a threat, into a symbol, into a strength. They know that, even though they don’t know what happens in Kaz’s head, because they see themselves in that. The Dregs; the literal bottom of the Barrel, who have been broken and who have clawed their way to survival. They cannot see themselves in Haskell’s mockery cane. Haskell is not a man who reflects what the Dregs are at their core, but Kaz is. The emphasis on the feathers is also really interesting, because I think it’s implying a sort of gaudy, colourful feathering that (despite fitting in with the style of the Barrel) does not represent the symbol of the crow; it is not something shadowed, something half hidden that could have an unexpected bite. It’s almost more akin to Heleen’s gaudy peacock feathers than it is to anything the Dregs understand, or represent through being Crows.

The pigeons I don’t really see anyone talking about, but I think it’s pretty interesting. The idea of ‘the pigeon’ is the same as ‘the mark’; they’re the victim, the fool who’s easy to swindle. I think the imagery of the fools being pigeons, ie being everywhere and massively populating big cities, is really clever to show a divide between the few, the Crows, and the many, the pigeons. However, it’s not only the Crows who remark on others being ‘pigeons’, but other gangs as well. When Kaz confronts Pekka about the scam he ran on him and Jordie, he says “you were just two pigeons, and I happened to be the one who plucked you”. I’m not gonna lie to you guys I’m losing my point slightly, but I just googled ‘crows and pigeons’ and the first thing that came up was about how crows sometimes eat pigeons so I reckon that’s pretty relevant.

Ok I’m really tired and I feel like I’m clutching at straws here, so I dunno I guess if this does well then I’ll cover peacocks, lions, and the general semantic field of birds in another post. I hope at least some of this made sense, thanks for reading it if you bothered to get this far

#grishaverse #leigh bardugo #six of crows #crooked kingdom #inej ghafa #nina zenik #kaz brekker #jesper fahey #matthias helvar #wylan van eck #kanej #wesper #helnik #crows #soc #fantasy analysis #fantasy books #book analysis #assorted analysis - grishaverse

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ladyluscinia · 11 months ago

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Draft clearing. I think I had more of a point on the topic of Jenkins and genre I wanted to make when I gathered these, but I'm not feeling it anymore. However, I need spread awareness of his absolutely baffling ideas about pirate media and how he sounds half-convinced it must be a formulaic action/adventure. I only picked up on this by reading way too many interviews back to back so I'm not surprised I've never seen anyone else mention it, but like. It's wild. And he's SO additionally weird about how showrunning a piece of media about pirates relates to whatever concept he has of pirate media in his head.

Here's the link to my interview compilation if you want to check my sources on these.

Jenkins Quotes on "Pirate Genre"

"I think actual pirate stuff is fine, but it's not necessarily my cup of tea. And I think Taika [Waititi] felt similarly.

[...]

Showrunner Jenkins sees Our Flag Means Death as having "joy. A lot of joy. I like Stede because Stede is, to me, the outsider artist of pirates. And I think in designing the show, I was conscious [of the fact that it's] a hard genre to do anything to. It's a very stubborn genre because it's been done so well and so often. So I kind of tried to look at, like New York, like Alphabet City in the '80s via a pirate genre via Mad Max and try to throw all these different things at it. So I think you'll get a different feel than you'd get on a normal pirate thing. I think we achieved that with our amazing crew." - (Gizmodo, 2/22/22)

"I guess I really… I get kind of bored. How much pirate can you do? They're going to rob stuff. They're going to steal ships. There's only so many pirate stories you can do." - (Collider, 3/24/22)

Despite creating a pirate show, he himself says he's not a huge fan of pirate movies. - (EW.com, 12/13/22)

"I don't want to see a bunch of pirate things that I've seen in other things, I'll just go watch another thing if I want to see that. That's not really my thing. I like the genre, but it's a very hard genre to budge. I want to see relationships in a pirate world." - (TV Guide, 10/5/23)

"The pirate genre is fun, but I wasn't dying to make a pirate show. Taika wasn't dying to make a pirate show. But the thing that was interesting to me was that Stede finds love, and he finds it with Blackbeard." - (Variety, 10/13/23)

"I think there is something in the show about how piracy is a brutal way of life. It's essentially Mad Max, this world. There's no law, there's just strong and weak." - (Polygon, 10/21/23)

"And it’s also a pirate show, so he’s got to die." - (Vanity Fair, 10/26/23)

"Another thing I love is what I call shaggy stories, stories about people navigating each other. When you plug them into different genres, you get this great engine that comes with it. I'm not particularly dying to write a pirate thing, but I want to write a bunch of characters trying to navigate each other in a pirate thing." - (Vulture, 10/28/23)

"But I'm like you. I'm not a big pirate person. In general, it's a big creaky genre that's hard to budge, but I think the show benefits from we can pull pirate stuff out when we need it. Ultimately, yeah, I want to see these different relationships and perspectives on different relationships. Then it's fun to plug it into an overwrought genre.

[...]

Pirates of the Caribbean, those movies are great. That's not necessarily what I hunger to see, but in that genre, it's great. You're not going to beat that, especially on something that's lower budget. We've seen a lot of this stuff, so it's fun to take it then and don't do any of that stuff." - (Metro Weekly, 11/1/23)

"I think it's more interesting to me that I've never seen a love story like this in this genre, and you dream for that. Really, pirates, what can you do that's different with pirates?

[...]

To me, to tell the story about these two men in this very hetero action genre, falling for each other..." - (Metro Weekly, 11/1/23)

---

...This is the same guy who just ended a season on the British Navy blowing up Nassau for symbolism reasons that I'm pretty sure have nothing to do with the love story. 🤨

#good news - his forest fight is probably not intentionally a weak parody of black sails #because despite being a known tragedy enjoyer i don't think he would watch black sails #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd piracy #david jenkins #i'll also do just to be safe #ofmd critical #even though this is 90% just pulling his own words together for you to make your own conclusion #ladyluscinia

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greekceltic · 10 months ago

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FAQ Page

She/her | 38 | I like cats and rain. My comic: https://catswaycomic.com/ My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/greekceltic My Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/greekceltic Other links: https://linktr.ee/greekceltic Sorry in advance if you send me a message and I don't get back to you, I tend not to stress over messages/asks. I do try to read them though, and I'm always open to being asked questions about characters or my headworld/stories. I am already aware that my art is being copied. They're blocked. Please stop telling me about it. Rest of my FAQ is under the cut >

Can I repost your work? I don't mind as long as I'm credited. I'm less okay with my work being used as a pageviews grab, but it's probably not worth my time to care. If it's something I've selected to take down and don't have posted anymore, don't. If it's something you commissioned, go for it. You don't need to credit me every time you share it. Once in a while is cool.

Are you okay with fanart? What about OC interactions? Can I post it? Sure, just don't profit off of it and please credit me. If you want to draw my OCs interacting with yours that's also fine (and fun!)- though I prefer situations where their actions make sense. Alf wouldn't make your character cry, for example. He's grumpy but not cruel. Posting it is fine. Is it okay if I take inspiration from your art and concepts? I've been in a situation in recent years where another artist has taken far, far too much. It's a subject I'm pretty burnt out on. I recently saw another artist's take on this and it looked sensible to me. I'm just going to quote theirs. I have tried to find my own words, but right now I find myself more comfortable using someone else's. "Well, if you’re having to ask me for permission, either your design is too similar or you’re being overly nervous about a normal artistic process. You’re absolutely free to use my work as a source of inspiration but I’d strongly encourage you to think about the details from my design you like most, and remix them with other concepts into your own unique take."

Taking inspiration is something everyone does, but please don't become a shadow I get bi-weekly alerts about. Ideally your pool of inspiration will be many artists and concepts re-imagined into something unique to you- and that you're being honest with yourself about the result.

Your art is being copied! / Will you tell me who the copy cat is? I get a lot of messages about this and am tired. I'm sure if my art ends up somewhere it shouldn't be or there's something really worth my attention I'll find out through friends. Otherwise, I'm just sayin' get a second or third opinion before coming to my inbox. I probably already know about it.

I sent you a message and you didn't respond. Sorry about that. I tend not to stress about messages because it can be a drain. You're more likely to get a response if you let me know from the get go what you want, but nothing is guaranteed. Sometimes I didn't see it, sometimes I got busy or forgot, sometimes I plan to do it later, sometimes I just opted out. It's not personal. Where do you Rp? Are you looking for more partners? Discord mostly. Roleplay consumes a lot of time so these days I mostly only play with my buddy Thema. I probably wouldn't have time to play, but I like to hang around people that do and I don't mind being asked. Just please don't be sad if I never get around to responding! I'm most compatible with people who are comfortable with radio silence.

Can I use your characters in roleplay/as roleplay refs? Considering I actively roleplay my OCs and there's a potential for confusion, I'd rather you didn't. Though I think there's a difference between linking to my art and saying 'this is my character', and linking to it to say 'this has the mood I'm going for, but here's what's different about my character--'. The latter is fine.

Can I make Fan OCs for your setting? Thinking about this makes me tired. Maybe I'll get to a point where I'm more comfortable later, but for now I'd rather you didn't make something directly from my worlds. But lets be real, you don't need my permission to draw cat monsters and I take a huge amount of inspiration from ancient history. Many of my concepts are inspired by things that you can read about and be inspired too. If you see something and are curious if there's a historical source, just ask. Hopefully I'll remember.

Do I have permission to draw NSFW art of your characters? No, for a plethora of reasons, some easy to explain and some not, but I probably can't stop you. Just don't profit off of it or show it to me.

Do you have a website for your OCs? I have RP pages for them scattered all over the place and many of them are outdated, but as I type this I recently put some up on Toyhouse. https://toyhou.se/GreekCeltic

Do you have a website for your comic? Sure do. It's an expensive fuck. https://catswaycomic.com/ When does your comic update? Sporadically. I work on it when I have time. My income is solely freelance commissions and Patreon- mostly commissions.

There's other places you could post your comic! Yeah, I know. I may do that someday, but for now I like having my own house, even if it's an expensive fuck. (Not really, the renewal just hits around tax time, Lol).

#faq #stuff

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agentstarkid · 4 months ago

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This little story turns one year old this July 31st!

We hopped with Girlie on a rollercoaster of finding (true) love, being quarantined in a foreign country, lots of internet meanies, making new friends, angst, heartbreak, depresh sesh, finding love again and so much more to come -- What a wild journey it's been, and I'm so proud I took the leap!

Looking back a year ago, I can't believe how far this story and I have come. I remember being so full of uncertainty and nerves to post that first chapter, and now, a whole year later, I'm writing little blurbs and one-shots in a whole different language to my main one.

And to celebrate this milestone with you guys, the DAN-Y/N stans out there, and as a thank you for all these 365 days of support and love to Danielito & Girlie's love story—a.k.a. my baby—, I put together a list of dialogue prompts from where you can pick one—or as many as you'd like—and send it to me so I can write a little blurb to go with it!

You can request a specific moment on the fic you'd like to see more (c'mooooon, they were together for 2 whole years! Let's see if you've been paying attention hehe), or just make a general request with a quote of your choice (or you can suggest one! Can't promise much on this, but I'd try my best to bring it to life, unless it is smut. I can't write smut for shitzels yet soz).

I'll be accepting resquests for the next 2 weeks!

✧. ┊ Series Masterlist

P.S. Fingers crossed next month I can—finally—post a new chapter! Adult life has been kicking my ass these past months so please be patient with me! — But my inbox is always open to talk! :)

— All the dialogue sources are linked!

“These are way too many, omg, I’m being squeezed by these pillows, love!” “Well I just, you know, thought that since you like to hold on to me while you sleep but we can’t do that right now, I decided to bring you all these.” “Aww, I appreciate it, baby, but would you mind moving some? And even though I do have these, I will miss your warmth beside me.”

“You weren’t uncomfortable back there, right? I just wanted to make sure you were all right.” “No, no, I wasn’t. Thank you for doing that.”

"You had no business looking that good back there."

"Those could be our kids one day." "What...?"

“They don’t know you, love. They don’t know how much we love each other. Let them think what they want to. It doesn’t matter, you know why? Because you are enough. We are enough.”

“I don’t want you to be perfect, sweetheart. I want you to be who you are.”

“I…I wasn’t sure if you’d like this, so I just bought all the colors they had there.”

“Stoooop. Stop making me all…” “All… what?”

“Sorry. I just... like seeing that I have an effect on you, I guess.”

“Life would suck complete testicles if it weren’t for you.”

“I like seeing you this way. so… at ease. makes me wonder how anyone could ever purposely put you under stress and live with themselves afterwards.”

"I know you're struggling right now, and it's okay, okay? We'll get through this."

“With you, I see a forever I’ve never envisioned before. Not that I didn’t want to, it’s more because I wasn’t able to… At least until I met you.”

“God, I really don’t want to leave”.

“I’m so deftly terrified of falling in love. Because what if I end up with a broken heart? That thought itself is just so scary to me. I want to, but I can’t get over that fear.” “Then how about you let me be that first step you take into falling in love? I can help you get over that fear, if you’d let me.”

“People say they fall in love like they fall asleep — slowly, then all at once. But the way I fell for you can only be described as that feeling when you’re drifting off to sleep, only to feel like you’re falling, oh-so-suddenly. So suddenly that it ends up startling you awake; heart racing in your chest because it feels like you fell off the precipice of a cliff. It’s quick and sudden, and there’s no slowness to it. It’s a crash and burn type of love that I feel.”

“They say the second time’s the charm.” “Was the first time not charming enough for you?” “No, but the second time’s going to be even better, I promise.”

“If people can hate for no reason, then I can love for no reason too.”

“I dunno who taught you that love comes with conditions and limitations, but mine doesn’t. Not when it’s you.”

“I don’t know how to ask for help i just— I’ve never had anyone to ask for help from before. so…this is me trying i guess. I need it and i’m afraid to ask for it. That's the best I can do.”

“You really think a relationship should be that hard?” “No one writes songs about the ones that come easy.”

“If you don’t kiss me, right now…” “Then what?” “Then I will have to do it myself.”

"I think destiny wants us to be together, and you should never argue with destiny.”

“What do you think is our song?”

“I can’t concentrate, when you look at me like that.” “Well, you should be concentrating on me instead, so…”

“Sing for me.” “What would you like to hear?”

“I feel like I can breathe better with you around.”

“You’re much better off without me.” “You’re not the judge of that.”

“I love you, okay?! And I can’t stay in your life when I’m just ruining it.” “You can’t just say that and don’t wait for me to answer.”

“Your mom is coming over today.” “Tell her to bring fried rice or she’s not invited.” “You tell her, she’s your mom.” “But she likes you more!”

“Wait, you can’t swim?” “I was always more into sports on land where, you know, I can’t drown.” “I will teach you!”

“Every night before bed I write three good things that happened to me. And every night I find myself writing down your name.”

“God, don’t do that. You’re going to make me go on Santa’s naughty list tonight.”

“This heart belongs to you, and only you. And I’d hope you want to keep it for a very, very long time.”

“What matters isn’t the place, but the person you’re with at that place. So this is to say, being with you is enough for me. So long as you are there, then all is well.”

“If you don’t wanna spend the night in a empty house, you could always come over to mine.”

"Hey, i think i can fit over here in this corner." "What are you, a plant?" "Maybe. you shine on me every day, after all."

“I don’t know what the future holds. all i know is that i hope you’re in it. “

“Annoying you is what I’m best at.”

“You get to curl up in my lap, and I get to watch a cinematic masterpiece in peace and quiet. i think this is a pretty sweet deal.”

“This is your home, just as it is mine.”

“That was your master plan? Really?” “No, my master plan was having no plan actually.”

“When life gives you lemons, squirt the juice into your enemies’ eyes and watch them whimper.”

“Maybe i'm too late to be your first, but right now, i'm preparing myself to be your last.”

“Over everything, I choose you.”

“You’ve given me so many memories, I'd hate it if you become one”

“I hope you heal from the things you dont wanna talk about”

“I was gonna marry her…”

“Because you always been my ticket home…”

“Have you ever gone stargazing?” “yeah, i’ve seen your eyes a few times.”

"Oh God- why are you half-naked?" "nothing you haven't seen before, love" "it's freezing, go put on a shirt-" "Nah, you can warm me up."

“You never have to fear that you’re losing me.”

“Aw, you brought out the smile.” “Which smile?” “The one reserved for the people you love.” “How could you even tell?” “Because that’s how you smile at me.”

“No, you’re not allowed to smile at me like that.”

“This is not some predestined soulmate shit or fate or whatever. I love you all on my own. Because you’re awesome and because I want to.”

“You know, I prefer you naked, but that dress also looks breathtaking on you.”

“Believe in the me that believes in you”

“Work can wait. You need rest.”

“I got the recipe from your mom, i hope i did it justice.”

“I think i deserve a cuddle for letting you stick your icy little feet on me all night.”

“Ok…so, umm I made this playlist for our first month anniversary. I hope it’s not too bad!” “Omg, this is- I can’t believe it! I always wanted someone to make me a playlist!”

“You already are a handful. Together, you guys are insufferable.”

“I’m right here.”

“Careful, or I will fall for you.” “You’ll be fine. I’ll buy you some knee pads.” “Knee pads but no helmet?” “If you’re falling for me, you’ve already taken a hit to the head.”

“Uh-oh.” “What’s wrong?” “That’s their ‘oh, you messed with the wrong bitch, bitch’ face.”

“You look like an idiot.” “You know, other people would say it’s nice to see me so happy. Or that I have a beautiful smile.”

“I’ve never seen you this happy before.”

“(Congrats.) You’re one of us now.”

“Please, never apologise for wanting to be loved.”

“Come on. I’ll show you how to dance”

"Are you still mad at me? I mean, it's okay if you are. I'm mad at myself, too."

"Put your head on my lap and sleep a little."

“I don’t want to go to bed angry…can we please talk about this?”

“Your cheeks are really soft.” “Stop squishing them!”

“You didn’t have to do anything…” “But i wanted to.”

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dr-spectre · 5 months ago

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Ranting about the Splatoon Fandom Wiki....

I wanna quickly make fun of the Splatoon fandom wiki because like most fandom wikis, it's covered with ads unless you use an adblocker, is poorly formatted, poorly structured, has less info than Inkipedia, doesn't update frequently, has missing information, and genuinely is less "professional" than Inkipedia. It also just copies and pastes info from Inkipedia too so there's that as well... I'm not exactly sure how fandom wiki works and how the moderation works but it seems scattered and not good enough by any means.

Like Callie's page for example has this weird ass paragraph that says Callie was left unstable after Splatoon 2??? And it contains a lot of errors and a very weird subjective piece of text in what is supposed to be an objective as possible page, cause you know, ITS A WIKI!!!

She wants to splat shielded Octarians over and over again because that's just in line with her character, she's energetic and silly, she doesn't give a fuck that you need to go behind them to attack them better, she's just gonna splat them up front with her roller, that's just who she is, she represented team Show No Mercy in Splatoon 1 for a reason. Also that dialogue is cut off from what she actually says to further paint this idea that Callie is some broken unstable girl who was a victim of kidnapping and forced brainwashing, for some fucking reason i don't know. I can't even seem to find the original dialogue they stated because THEY DON'T LINK SOURCES!!! HOW DOES A WIKI NOT PROVIDE SOURCES TO THEIR QUOTES!?!?? WHAT!?? I tried checking Inkipedia and even they don't have this dialogue from Callie, so idfk man. All I know is that the dialogue was cut off. Ugh...

From my memory i don't even recall Callie having a new facial animation where her pupils shrink, or it's just so incredibly minor that it's not worth bringing up at all. She also wasn't smiling to hide her panic when her grandfather was kidnapped and insulting Mr. Grizz what the fuck? She was frowning when Cuttlefish dried up and died for a moment!! She was UPSET! and didn't hide it at all! What the hell?! Also facial animations in Splatoon work by the characters swapping between different mouth presets in quick succession, you can see it for yourself when you watch the Idols perform and sing, their mouths don't move smoothly and it makes sense because their language is just gibberish and clipped together audio clips. You can't animate that smoothly unless you spent an INSANE amount of time to animate their mouths incredibly smoothly to match the intentional gibberish and messy vocals. And you gotta do that for EVERY. CUTSCENE. IN. THE. STORY. MODE. That's why the developers just do the cheaper and simpler option to save on time, money and labour.

The "Plenty!" line in response to Shiver's "what is wrong with you?" Is most likely a reference to her quote on quote "airheaded" personality and a subtle nod at her putting the shades back on again and again.

Callie does seem to have mental health issues but it wasn't caused by some "brain warping evil shades oooo", it was due to various things prior to that. Waking up very early in the morning every single day and working non stop, getting harassed by paparazzi, being incredibly lonely and having a strained relationship with someone you used to care about would fuck up anyone's mental health and cause you to overthink and make bad decisions, like join the Octarians and end up wanting to adopt their ideals due to not wanting to go back to your old life and having to deal a fractured relationship with a family member that you think insulted you multiple times on live television, and those feelings and that darkness inside your heart get further amplified by hypnotic shades that cause the restraints in your head to finally break through. But i digress....

Another BIG issue with the fandom wiki is that it's not updated at all, it's extremely outdated, you can check for yourself, find your favorite Idol or character and see if they have the latest info on them, chances are, they don't.

Marina's page is missing Side Order information and new songs.

Shiver's is missing a LOT of gallery and Splatfest information. (No info on Suffer No Fools and "What would you do at world's end?" Splatfest)

Same with Frye. (Frye has the most up to date info on her Splatfest wins and loses yet Shiver doesn't? Huh?)

DJ Octavio's page spreads the incorrect narrative that he uses music to directly control Octarians which has been proven false.

Inkipedia gets it right by saying it's more like propaganda and military marches.

(Although i have my own personal issues with how sometimes Inkpedia talks about Hypno Callie but at least they bothered to include the god damn relationship chart in her page.)

Yeah the Splatoon fandom wiki is just.... bad man. it's awful. It's dogshit. Sometimes i see it as the top result when i search for characters and other Splatoon related content, i don't want casual fans and newcomers to go on that website which has false and outdated information. Please give all the support you can to Inkipedia. It's incredibly rich in information and updates fairly quickly. As a game wiki it's insanely well put together and one of the best wikis out there. It's amazing. If you want to do a wiki scroll and you're mildly interested in Splatoon then it's a great place to get lost for a while and spend some time in.

I just wanted to do a little ranting is all right now. I know that a large majority of people in the community don't like the fandom wiki and Inkipedia is superior by 10000000x but. I just wanted to rant a little. Get my thoughts out there. I'm too attached to a certain cephalopod woman to let poor information about her slide under the radar.

#splatoon #rant post #sorry for the rant #callie cuttlefish #callie splatoon #splatoon 2 #splatoon 3 #frye onaga #frye splatoon #marie splatoon #marie cuttlefish #splatoon marina #marina ida #dj octavio #vent post

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rajaions · 1 year ago

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Was Ashnard an illegitimate son of the king?

(This post contain spoilers for FE9/10)

Ashnard; the "only" surviving member of Daein's royal family, as we progress through the game's story, we come to find out how his family was wiped out (almost) entirely, his involvement in this tragedy and his reasons for having committed such acts.

There is some information scattered across both games regarding Ashnard's position in the royal court prior to the downfall of his family that I feel are of importance understand his character better.

Our main sources of information will be the following:

- The base conversation with Tanith in chapter 18 (PoR)

- Ashnard and Bryce's conversation in the final chapter of PoR

-The final chapter of part 3 (RD)

The base conversation with Tanith explains what happened to the royal family 18 years prior to the mad king's war:

Here, we learn that the king, his queen and ~20 princes and princesses died because of a "plague" (which was actually the curse of a blood pact)

Ike: "Nobles, you say? So the royal family fell victim to this plague as well?"

Tanith: "Yes. The reigning king and queen and some twenty or so princes and princesses fell ill. And everyone who fell ill perished."

English localization:

There's other important information in the base conversation with Tanith, but I feel like it's important to mention that the way this information was treated in English localization and original Japanese script differs slightly.

Japanese script:

Tanith: "You see, his name was never mentioned in any talk of succession before that time. He was of such a distant bloodline that he was unlikely to be king."

王位継承には名の挙がることがなかったほど、

タニス: "そうだ。だがそれまでは…

王位には遠い存在だったようだ。"

tl: Tanith: "Indeed. But until then...his name had not ever come up in talk of succession; that was how far he was from the throne, it seems."

"Of such a distant bloodline" VS "that was how far he was from the throne"

(Link to the fan translation can be found here, I recommend reading it to understand my post better)

Ashnard is consistently referred as the king's son across both games, which means that he can not be of "a distant bloodline". (probably an error on the translators part)

Ashnard: "Oh, but it doesn't end there. There was my stepmother, too. And every brother who stood to be a legitimate heir...All of them died by my hand."

In the final chapter of PoR, when Ashnard reveals the truth behind the downfall his family, he admits to killing his father, brothers and his stepmother.

Ashnard: "The thing that killed my father was not plague, nor was it another illness. It was me.

Before I get to my point, let me list what do we know for facts:

- Ashnard is the king's son

- The queen of Daein died because of the blood pact (and thus, was killed by Ashnard)

- Ashnard killed his stepmother

- He killed around 20 princes and princesses (Note: the title of prince/princess is not exclusive to the king's children; it can also be used for his siblings/grandchildren)

- He killed "every brother who stood to be a legitimate heir"

- His name never came up in talks of succession

So, how does the king's son can end up so low in the succession line?

While not explicitly stated, it seems pretty obvious (to me) that the queen and Ashnard's stepmother are one and the same.

If Ashnard was born from an extramarital affair, it would explain why he was never seen as a potential heir to the throne, the queen's children and potential grandchildren would be prioritized over him.

And with over 20 princes and princesses in the family, it's not far-fetched to imagine that some of them were born out of wedlock.

With all of that in mind, let's take a look at these quotes:

Ashnard: "I question the way in which our society is designed. No matter what strength a person has, it is the station he is born into that controls his destiny. And you cannot control where you will be born. Do you believe that a person of low birth should simply endure the curse of his station?"

Almedha: "Ashnard, he… always worried about the future of a world without equals. He was born an outstanding man, wise beyond his age, yet could never become king."

We can grasp why he became so enamored with the idea that "the strong should possess everything", because as an illegitimate son of the king, his chances of becoming king through legitimate/nonviolent means were probably close to zero. Physical strength was his only way obtain some sort of legitimacy. (for example, his name was well known in the army prior to his ascension to the throne)

TL;DR Although his father is indeed the king of Daein, many elements imply that Ashnard's mother is not the queen, making him an illegitimate son of the king.

#fire emblem #ashnard #path of radiance #radiant dawn #tellius #fe9 #fe10 #sorry if my english is bad #i'm trying my best #meta

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fourraccoonsinacoat · 9 months ago

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FourRaccoonsInACoat Masterlist

Thanks for stopping by my masterlist, I am thrilled there are people who are interested in my writing! You may be asking, did I really create a logo for a nonexistent book series that only exists in the BG3 universe and features Malta the crime-fighting cat, all for the sake of a gag?

Yes. Yes I did. I will speak no more on the matter.

My fanfiction is centered around Baldur's Gate 3 and explores the romance between Astarion and the Dark Urge. The Durge MC in my works is based on my first BG3 Durge, a female half-drow warlock named Eli. I currently have one ongoing chapter fic, as well as a few one shots that all take place in the same universe.

I write fanfiction for myself as a way to decompress from life and because I enjoy sharing my stories with others. It legitimately makes my day when someone is entertained by my writing, so thank you for every comment, like, message and kudo. Much love and appreciation to you all!

Also, if you're here for BG3 Incorrect Quotes, follow that link for the masterlist.

____________________

AO3 Account - All of my works are crossposted to AO3.

Ongoing Work

Head Full of Ghosts:

Current Rating: M

Chapters: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4

Eli has spent a lot of time combing through her fractured psyche, trying to piece together any semblance of facts about who she was before she awoke on a mind flayer nautiloid. In all that self-reflection, she has concluded there are two things she is very good at. Killing people and drinking.

Neither of which is proving very useful as she tries to navigate interpersonal pitfalls after being appointed leader of a ragtag group of maladjusted misfits who are trying to source a cure for the illithid tadpoles in their heads. As if that isn't problematic enough, she's also having to contend with the growing affections between herself and the group's resident vampire spawn, Astarion.

Between fanatic cultists, goblin raids, murderous urges and cryptic memory loss, Eli figures a relationship is the last thing she ought to get herself wrapped up in. And from what she's seen of Astarion, the cavalier rogue seems to have his own breeds of specters haunting his steps.

Neither one of them has any business mucking about with romance. But, neither one of them is particularly good at staying away from things that entice.

____________________

One Shots

In chronological order:

Fall for Me ---> Faint of Heart ---> Midnight Prayer

Fall for Me

Rating: E NSFW18+

Astarion wakes from a nightmare and goes to Eli, seeking reassurance as he struggles with the denial of his feelings. The last thing he wants to do is give someone else control over him, not after he’s so recently regained a taste of freedom. Over the past 200 years, every relationship Astarion was involved in had been nothing more than a means to an end, with Astarion either playing the role of manipulator or the one being manipulated. Attachments were leverage, giving someone a hook they were able to dig their claws into in order to gain ground. Isolating himself from connecting with others was how he had survived.

This, however…this was different.

Rating: M

Faint of Heart

Somewhere along the way, more and more truth has begun to slip into the words Astarion has been using to charm Eli into his bed. He's not sure when it started, but sometime between their passionate nights and hard fought days, genuine feelings began to stir.

It all comes to a head after the crew stages a prison break out of Moonrise Towers. Now, during a rare evening of respite, Astarion is determined to make a confession, regardless of his fears over the fallout.

Rating: M

Midnight Prayer

Neither Eli nor Astarion knows what they're doing when it comes to romance. Their combined histories with healthy relationships adds up to an unsurprising total of zero. Astarion once admitted to Eli that he couldn’t remember ever bedding the same person twice. And Eli…well, she can't remember anything, frankly. Her memories of past lovers are nonexistent…at least…

At least until today. Today, when they’d finally met the infamous Enver Gortash.

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uh-mxtx · 1 year ago

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Modern MDZS au where WWX gets in a debate with college professor LQR about LGBTQA+ stuff, probably bc WWX is “corrupting” LWJ with the gay agenda. And stealing all of LWJ’s turtlenecks, for some odd reason! The boy clearly can’t take care of his own clothes, they’re all tattered and his hair is a birds nest.

Anyways, LWR is going on about how the homos are lecherous filth that have fallen to temptation or smth while covering up their transgressions by naming themselves odd things. Really, LQR asks, “what even is a pan-sexual?” (Or some other such thing that shows he doesn’t actually know anything anout being queer)

“Oh, you don’t know?” WWX asks, eyes wide and innocent and CLEARLY up to Some Shit. “Professor Lan, Professor Lan, Professor ‘show your sources do your research’ LAN. Do you not know what we’re debating about?”

LQR huffs and starts saying something about family values and continuing on bloodlines, but WWX is grinning like the cat that caught the canary.

“Professor, have you ever actually researched this? Or are you just wasting my time?” (An actual LQR quote from earlier in the semester)

LQR puffs up, and he’s all “of course I haven’t-“

“Well then, Sir,” WWX interrupts, manic joy written all over his expression, “may I just say that you have the audacity of a white man insisting that Mandarin is just a type of orange.”

The bell rings before LQR can get a word in, and WWX grabs his bag and books it to the door.

“I’ll send you some reading, Professor Lan! Let’s do this again when you know what you’re talking about!”

And with that he’s gone.

Now, WWX is only a little bit of a hypocrite, bc he definitely thought he was straight and only just managed his Revelation of “oh heck Lan Zhan is so pretty he turned me gay?” *research montage bc he actually has resources (and NHS definitely helped.) “Oh maybe girls are just pretty and I’m demisexual.”

However, the fact that he only JUST did this, means his ADHD self still has all the tabs open. And, like, he did say he’d send stuff, and this is Lan Zhan’s uncle. So, he compiles a helpful list of sites and articles, includes a link to a place where you can ask questions to the Queer Council, and sends it off.

LQR is initially going to ignore it, but then his scholar brain gets the better of him. WWX had made a point, he was woefully unprepared, and so with the intention of finding points to throw in that little brat’s face, he braces himself for horrible outlandish untraditional family-breaking nastiness, plus whatever else WWX might have put in there (ancestors if that horrid boy sent him PORN he’ll have him expelled) and opens the links.

He finds a bunch of actual helpful websites.

Definitions for all the names, labels, flags. Helpful tips for understanding yourself. Pictures of couples holding hands, smiling happily.

“Love isn’t just for procreation.”

Resources for kids who’s parents kicked them out. Survival tips. Unsafe areas.

And, because I’m personally a big fan of Demisexual WWX, a whole bunch of websites on the Asexual spectrum. You know, where people say, “oh yeah, apparently other people actually DO feel that urge to have sex with people. The songs aren’t making stuff up y’all. We’re just built different.”

LQR: nani tf?

Thus begins a confused deep dive into asexuality, what it means, allosexuals and all that jazz. LQR actually does end up asking a question on one of the sites, something like:

“I always believed that people who allowed themselves to be lustful and fall into bed with others were simply unrestrained. Is it true that some people feel an actual need for this? I have felt attraction for a woman before, but I never felt the need that some popular media attests to.”

There’s a bunch of replies, but one sticks out to LQR:

“Gonna be crude for a sec, excuse me- did you actually want to bang her? Or were you friends and heteronormative society insisted that boys and girls gotta want to fuck?”

LQR, who as a young man looked at CSSR and thought “If I have to marry, I wouldn’t mind her”: 🤯🤯🤯

Oh no.

He has to face that smirking little brat WWX.

#lan qiren #wei wuixan #wangxian #ace lan qiren #demisexual wangxian #mdzs fanfiction #mdzs prompt #modern mdzs

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theomnicode · 2 months ago

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How I write metas? A meta about metas

If this deconstruction post is going to be useful for any aspiring meta writer on this OPM fandom that I currently follow, then be my guest. :D

Warning: Semi-long post.

Step 1: Inspiration

Nope, really can't get into my head all the time to write stuff as much as I would love to but when I do, it's because I get a good inspiration from something. It does not really matter at this point if it's short or long, just the subject matters. Then if I get inspired, I will usually stew on that idea for a while and think about the points in the manga that fit.

Unfortunately inspiration does not strike all the time so there's always that. I'm going with the route that "you can't force inspiration to come to you, you want the inspiration to become you" or something like that. Take that with grain of salt, I just made it up on the spot.

Step 2: Practice

I've personally been writing fanfics since I was...a teen I believe and meta is just a subsection of writing school essays, except it's actually fun. So writing something has been quite a lot of work put behind it, but nobody says one cannot start from scratch today and the meta doesn't need to be immediately impressive, we're just writing it for fun yanno? For other fandom peeps who maybe wanna hear our thoughts. Just gotta start from somewhere yanno? My earlier metas are prolly a fair bit different than my current metas.

Like they say, practice makes perfect.

Step 3: The creative process

Ok so to the nitty gritty of the meta making... PLOT NO JUTSU!

I oftentimes either discuss the meta on discord channels with likeminded peeps and then start gathering some images from the manga to use as my images to enhance my point and make my texts also visually interesting to look at and make some clarifying points. I tend to find some good relative image to use as my first image because it'll show up in archive search like so:

It'll be easier to search for my metas even without searching for my tags from my archives if they look similar.

Next, I keep a folder for all my meta images in a neat pile and I use paint ms to cut me nice images to post into my meta and I also have cubari , the one site which hosts all the chapters so far, open where I can just grab images whenever. Basically any kind of image tool you got from paint to gimp to photoshop can help you crop images you want to use if you want to use images in your meta.

My brain can sometimes be pretty hard to follow apparently, so I do try to parse a lot when I write my texts and keep it somewhat coherent. Parsing information via the canon timeline can help form a coherent timeline to follow in a meta.

In general, you want your writing progress to be seamless and disturbance free creative process, not unlike drawing. Sometimes ambient music on the background can help focus on the actual meta writing process (currently listening to Ardenweald from WoW), which can take me from 1 hour to all the way to 5 hours in a single sitting, which is quite long but remember, tumblr drafts saves your progress even if you save it nowhere else and it's entirely possible to finish the thinking process another day when you have more time.

Sometimes I include links to either my own metas or some outside source, which I then briefly quote on my text, like in the Saitama mental health meta where I citate depression effects on memory recollection. The quote sources can also be stated at the very end like in a real essay, but to me personally I'm fine without the citations at the end, long as I state my sources and then put quotes into indented text.

Step 4: The writing itself

Paraphrasing helps make your text look coherent and easier to read to just about anybody, so avoid pure walls of texts. I usually write longer texts, but that is up to the writer to decide how short, long or how abridged they can/wanna make their work, which frankly is not one of my best skillsets lmao. Just gotta make sure to put that warning in the front if it's long post.

Nowdays, I also include chapter names and numbers about the relevant information I'm writing meta about in between () marks and itallics to further separate it from plain text, which might be helpful to people if they search for that specific plot point from the manga itself. Then if it's a particularly long meta, a tl;dr at the bottom if I can form a proper tldr.

Sometimes I also get struck by random thought and I just have to write it out haha. Sometimes I ask for aid and opinions on discord channels.

Any long metas should definitely have that "readmore" cutoff in the beginning, else entirety of tumblr or wherever you'll post the meta will hate you.

Step 5: Revision & Tagging

You can hold on from posting the meta the very same day and just keep it revised for a bit longer if you want to correct spelling mistakes or if you think you can maybe adds some more to it. Revision is just as important in writing meta as in writing something like fanfiction and I personally do a fair bit of both.

When tagging, I just use "opm meta" for all my opm related metas and then tag in fandom and characters that apply to the current meta and then some other related subjects like "mental health, character study" etc. I prolly haven't tagged my earlier metas that properly but eh... if you write on another platform and then copypaste it to tumblr, make sure that the plain text shows properly and doesn't create any weirdness.

Closing thoughts...that's about it folks, that's how I write meta and how I wrote this piece as well. Which took me roughtly 1hr 45mins to write down at my current writing speed but I've been thinking about this since yesterday haha.

Tl;dr: Inspiration, practice, creative process by saving images and thoughts as they go, writing and paraphrasing, revision and tagging properly.

#opm #one punch man #opm meta #opm manga panels #how to write meta #long post #tutorial #writing

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felassan · 8 months ago

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I was sent a link to a ‘chat with Mark Darrah' interview video that I hadn’t seen before. [here is the source] link. the interview took place in 2022, so bear that in mind when listening, but it still has interesting insights and things in there.

the rest of this post is under a cut due to length.

this post is just some brief notes and a few transcribed quotes of interest from the video.

Mark ofc was in charge of DA:O, DAII, & DA:I, then, quote, “then a bunch of malarkey happened” and he ended up in charge of Anthem in 2017 in its final ~16 months

In AAA games narrative is a certain thing that was very much defined in a lot of ways by BioWare

There’s a BioWare story in Anthem (though certainly not its best), if you just ignore everything else

The average gamer puts way too much stock into what engine is used to make a game

Mark is pretty sure that the guts of Neverwinter Nights is underneath the Witcher engine

Moving DA from Aurora to Eclipse to Frostbite (engines) opened up more possibility spaces

Frostbite stagnated because it essentially was the engine everyone had to use at EA

Before DA:I, there was a game at BioWare internally codenamed “Blackfoot”. It was going to be a multiplayer DA game and was using Frostbite before DA:O, during the time of DAII’s late development but before DA:I started development. It never shipped as it got eaten by DA:I

For the MET, Casey was originally trying to make a Star Control-type game but cinematic. Echoes of this can be seen in ME1. But ME the IP itself wants to be a space opera. Ultimately the cinematic experience side of it won out

And some specific quotes:

“Something that I noticed is that, sometimes, if your studio is hiring only your biggest fans, which I saw at BioWare sometimes, those people are in some ways, they’re almost more, they have more zealotry towards the ‘old way’ of doing things than – that’s right, that [from a fandom point of view] is all they know. And they don’t necessarily know that this was awful or that ‘there could have been a better way, we just didn’t see it until later’. All they know is, ‘this is what you did, and you made this thing I love, so we have to do that too’, and, so that’s a danger that could happen is, you get the, you know the monkeys and the bananas, like, ‘I don’t even know why we’re doing this anymore, but I know we’ve always done it.’”

“The biggest reason to consolidate on an engine is for the ability to share more work within your studio. In theory.” “The problem that often happens is that you end up with not nearly as much sharing as you would imagine. FIFA doesn’t share anything with DA. And in BioWare’s case it’s even worse than that, there’s very little sharing between DA:I and ME:A, and between ME:A and Anthem. A lot of troubles ME:A and Anthem had is [because of] not building upon the foundations of DA:I.”

“My great frustration of BioWare from around 2013 to basically today [2022], there wasn’t a building upon the past.” “30% of DA:I’s tech budget was spent on tooling. On ME:A they didn’t build upon the tools that were laid by DA:I, partially because they started before DA:I shipped, but also for ‘Not Build Here’ reasons. They spent 10-15% approximately of their budget on tools. Anthem didn’t build on either of these foundations and they spent about less than 10% of their budget on tools. So it was like they were going backwards, respecting the engine less and less as they went forward, resulting in more and more struggles happening.” “I have the most sarcastic PowerPoint presentation ever which compares those two games, which are treated as if they’re widely different things. They’re pretty much exactly the same game, from the perspective of any external observer. ME is more like DA than it is like anything else. So it’s ridiculous. The answer is hubris, is the answer.”

On endings and the future:

“I think you have to do something [about the endings]. ME was always conceived as being a trilogy, but I think what you actually end up with with ME1-3, if you kind’ve just stick them together into one ridiculously big game, that’s why it, in some ways, the complaints about the original ME3 ending are so hilarious because in a way, the game ME3 is the ending for this entire huge game, which isn’t awesome, because you know, the last Hobbit movie is also stupid because it’s all ending. So, that’s not necessarily the best, but that’s essentially what you have. So because it was intended as a trilogy, it, to some kind of degree it kind of takes its ball and goes home at the end, where its like, ‘I’m gonna render the possibility of a direct sequel to this sooo nearly impossible that it’s ludicrous’. It could be that, so we know that the Mass Relays are down, that’s also true, but, like, we have potentially, everyone’s a cyborg, potentially there are no robots, potentially, potentially, potentially, it’s bananas. But interestingly, if you look at ME1, ME2 and ME3 as a single game, and then you look at DA:O, DA:O was always, was originally envisioned as a standalone game. There was never even a consideration for a sequel made for that. If you look at DA:O and then look at what it does at its ending, so the ending of the game itself is fairly tight, it’s like, well you definitely have to kill the Arch Demon, and you’ve ended the Blight, but then you go through the end credits stuff, the epilogue screens. And it’s like, maybe there’s a civil war happening in Orzammar, maybe there are werewolves spreading across this entire part of Ferelden, maybe there are no werewolves at all. Like it’s similar. Now what DA, the way that DA approached the solution to that was to canonize some of those choices, but for the most part just move away, far enough physically, so it’s like, okay, well maybe there are werewolves down south there, that’s not my problem, I got my own problems. Or it moves through time, which is one of the reasons why DA2 moves through so much time is, it gives distance from DA:O. One of the major reasons why ME:A is literally hundreds of years in the future and in another galaxy, it’s like, okay, well, something happened, [shrug], we can react if we want to but we don’t have to worry about the consequences. DA has had the same problem that ME had, just to a lesser degree. DA:O did such a great job of building up the Warden that people are really attached to that and they keep wanting to see the Warden come back. People are never gonna let go of Shepard. DA, new player characters every time because it allows things to be done, but there are costs to that, if you don’t have nearly the [same] attachment. I mean, there’s a reason why every single Zelda game starts with you as Link getting bonked on the head. They’ve essentially solved the problem, reset button, either you have amnesia or you’re like the great-great-great-great-grandson. So it’s like, maybe there’s a way that they can do something like that, but Zelda’s jumped through a lot of hoops that probably a modern game can’t be allowed to do. You’re “Link”, so maybe there’s a way that you can be Shepard but, but Shepard, you can be “Shepard”, maybe there’s a way you can do that, but yeah, it’ll be interesting, it’s definitely a problem that they have. Because certainly, Ryder from ME:A is not the same character, nor could any character from a single game compete with a character from three games. Maybe the approach is, you canonize the choices from MET and you say, ‘and the choice we’re making is, Shepard made it, and you’re Shepard. [shrug]”

“I think there is a lot of DNA of its older games still at BioWare, but you’re right. Every game needs to be a game in its moment. It needs to be appropriate to the time and space of what’s going on. So, I get it, you kind of just want to feel the thing you felt when you played ME2 or feel the thing you felt when you played DA:O.” “If suddenly you got an ME2 again magically appearing out of the ether, I don’t think it would be received the same way. The industry isn’t in the same place. BioWare needs to set a new bar.” “The sad truth is, the older you get, the less relevant a part of the buying demographic you are. So the reality is, I mean ME:A had a shaky launch unfortunately, but it’s a lot of peoples’ favorite ME. Mostof those people who it is their favorite ME are younger people because it targets, you know, it’s got a younger PC, it’s got a stronger, more. I mean, the MET is very much, Shepard is a hero from action movies from the 80s and 90s, for millennials. He’s stoic. Whereas Ryder is definitely, he’s much more a protagonist from a CW show. The reality is is that, sorry, but they’re not trying to make it for you anymore.”

[source and full watch link where you can check it out]

#dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #mass effect #mass effect: andromeda #next mass effect #anthem #video games #longpost #long post #(ty for sending the link!)

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catras-breakup-song · 1 month ago

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Hi.

I won't reply to you anonymously because I'm not scared/ashamed to debate openly, but first I wanted to ask: What do you mean Shadow Weaver would be raised by "mom" and Adora would be raised by "dad?" Hordak and SW literally had no romantic feelings for each other, they never dated, they were never married/divorced.

Adora and Catra would both have been raised by a single mother/father and them being childhood friends would have made sense since they wouldn't share an adoptive parent like they do in canon.

And even if the sources I mentioned about C//A being sisters aren't canon or what the show was going for, they kinda uh... Still put that dynamic IN the show? And since it's there, it's not illogical that some people are turned off by the ship. This person explained it perfectly: https://www.tumblr.com/anti-catradora-receipts/631728237468401664/the-fact-that-apparently-these-2-started-out-as?source=share

Not to mention that it basically resembles ANOTHER sibling relationship in fiction, which the same person talked about: https://www.tumblr.com/anti-catradora-receipts/637045171905789952/i-have-only-seen-clips-of-the-show-on-youtube-and?source=share

If C//A brings you happiness though, continue enjoying the ship and don't mind me. Also, if you wanna publish my reply to the public, go on.

with respect (which i genuinely appreciate you giving first), i think you may be confused, because i wasn't actually proposing a romantic dynamic between hordak and shadow weaver or them working together as parents; the context was that the person i was reblogging from had seen someone make a claim that what should have happened in canon was catra & adora were raised separately, and i challenged that logic, hence why i put those phrases in quotes when i compared it to a hypothetical realistic situation.

as far as the rest of your message goes, i think we just see shadow weaver differently and to me that's okay. i read through the first* post you linked (embedding it to make it more conveniently accessible), and i can see where they're coming from about her gestures towards the girls being maternal in an objective sense, but personally as i stated in one of my original post's points (which you may want to read through again if you haven't already), i think they both end up rejecting her as having ever truly been a mother as opposed to an assigned guardian. what i mean by this is, i suppose, how people say the title of mother should be earned, or else they may just be called an "egg donor" since that relationship was disowned by the child but doesn't take away from the fact that they gave birth (and a similar equivalent along those lines for adoptive ones, like SW).

*i briefly glanced through the other one, but i'm not sure i would understand since i've never known of that media.

considering everything she did was so manipulative, including body language, i just have a hard time accepting that her intentions were ever motherly (whether her actions actually were or not are up for debate & interpretation, in my opinion). the girls obviously wouldn't have understood this while they were kids, but once they grow older and the events of the story kick off, it seems to me like they deny having a mother in the past at all as they start learning to heal, because ideally having been orphans would be a less disturbing implication to them than what they got to experience instead.

that being said, i can't ignore the very last part of that receipt blog's post of the confession about the little girl. however, i think it goes far beyond just the discourse about them being sisters or lovers, considering some of the show's greater themes revolve around mature topics such as war & abuse. the writers have to be very careful about all the messages they're sending to a Y7-rated audience, such as "how far can someone go before crossing the line?" and "can certain people even be redeemed?" and "does not being a perfect victim by perpetuating the cycle of abuse mean you don't deserve to heal and be loved?" ─ i think these two analysis videos by "the sin squad" on youtube, that came out both before and after season five released respectively, cover this very valid concern pretty well, and they're worth a watch if you're still interested!

i hope this makes sense and what i'm trying to convey here comes across as i want it to. if not though, you're free to ask more questions and i'll do my best to communicate! i'd be happy to talk more since you're coming to me in good faith and don't shut out what i have to say. have a nice timezone, wherever you are! 𖹭

by the way, these banners are not here for you specifically, i just don't want nasty antis to come in and start arguing with me where they weren't invited, since they take a lot of mental effort to deal with. you are not one of them, in case that's not obvious! and thank you for clarifying that i can post this publicly or else i wouldn't be sure.

#spop #she ra #she-ra #she-ra and the princesses of power #catradora #catra #adora #shadow weaver #hordak #analysis #fandom #shipping #discourse #fandom discourse #shipping discourse #asks #carto0ncritter

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